In the photofinishing process, film cartridges are typically grouped into batches for handling in the photofinishing lab. In copending commonly assigned application U.S. Ser. No. 08/242,472, entitled FILM CARTRIDGE MAGAZINE of Robert J. Blackman, filed on May 12, 1994, there is suggested use of magazines for containing and delivering film cartridges to various photofinishing stations. The cartridge magazine is designed to be used with the various processing equipment. Typically, the equipment is provided with an interface mechanism which will sequentially remove the film cartridges from the magazine and route them to appropriate photofinishing activity that particular photofinishing machine performs, and then return the film cartridge sequentially to the same or another magazine. It is important that the magazine hold the cartridge securely with the magazine and that they are maintained in sequence.
Photofinishing generally involves processing batches of cartridges. The batch size will vary for a number of reasons. In some situations, a small batch could contain as few as 20 cartridges and a large batch could contain in excess of 120 cartridges. Because of the cost to tool, manufacture, and inventory several sizes of magazines, it is desirable that one magazine function across a wide range of batch sizes. However, large batches can result in undesirable magazines that are either too large or heavy. Thus, it is extremely desirable for magazines to have the ability to be expandable in terms of the number of cartridges it will hold, while still maintaining minimal size and configuration.
In addition to linear-type magazines, there has been suggested circular-type magazines, for example, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,338. Circular-type magazines offer distinct advantages over linear- or matrix-type magazines in that its motion and motion control in one axis (rotary) is only required. However, typical circular magazines can not be expanded to accommodate more cartridges than the number for which it was designed.
Another problem with prior art-type magazines is that at some point the magazine must be loaded and unloaded, thus requiring an interruption of the processing of the film.
The present invention provides a easily expandable film cartridge magazine which can handle small batch sizes to very large sizes. The magazine is also simple and easy to align with the photofinishing equipment and allows for the continuous operation of the photofinishing process.